Errata

Relating to:

Legal Aid Statistics Quarterly, April to June 2014

Published 3 December 2014 Errata

Applications for civil representation legal aid in private family law cases on the basis of evidence of domestic violence or child abuse, or risk thereof.

1. This note is to advise users that the figures provided on the above category of civil legal aid in the bulletin ‘Legal Aid Statistics: April 2014 to June 2014’, published on 25 September 2014 were incomplete.

2. The figures affected were included in the csv file that comprises the most detailed part of the statistical release. The other parts of the release (main document and tables) are not affected. Corrected figures are provided in Figure 1 below.

Detail

3. It was recently discovered that the figures previously published by the LAA on applications for, and grants of, civil representation legal aid in private family law cases which are made on the basis of evidence of domestic violence or child abuse are incomplete in that they exclude a portion of such cases.

4. This is caused by the way those cases were originally entered onto LAA data systems. When some applications were received and processed, the data field relating to which specific category (or categories) of evidence was involved was completed incorrectly.

5. This did not affect the processing of these cases, but it did mean that the data held for reporting purposes did not identify which category of evidence had been provided. This in turn meant that during the compilation of statistics, although these cases were included within the overall private family law category, they were not identified as belonging to this specific area of civil representation legal aid.

6. The cause of this problem has been addressed through improved staff training to ensure cases are entered onto LAA data systems correctly, and the data should be unaffected from December 2014 onwards. However the data for the period prior to December cannot be retrospectively corrected due to the difficulty and disproportionate cost involved in doing so. Revised figures

7. The figures provided in Figure 1 below now include these cases that were previously wrongly excluded. It is not possible to identify to which category of evidence they relate so they are shown as a separate, third category within the overall totals of applications received and granted.

Figure 1: civil representation legal aid in private family law cases on the basis of evidence of domestic violence or child abuse, or risk thereof

| | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |----------------------|---------|---------| | | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | Oct-Dec | Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | | Applications received| | | | | | | Total | 1,710 | 2,480 | 2,334 | 2,263 | 2,090 | | of which | | | | | | | evidence related to child abuse | 280 | 391 | 371 | 365 | 383 | | evidence related to domestic violence | 615 | 1,083 | 964 | 1,152 | 1,064 | | categories of evidence unknown | 815 | 1,006 | 999 | 746 | 643 | | Applications granted | | | | | | | Total | 1,241 | 1,816 | 1,668 | 1,657 | 1,465 | | of which | | | | | | | evidence related to child abuse | 192 | 277 | 255 | 255 | 253 | | evidence related to domestic violence | 494 | 845 | 700 | 893 | 799 | | categories of evidence unknown | 555 | 694 | 713 | 509 | 413 |

Change compared with figures published on 25 September 2014

| | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |----------------------|---------|---------| | | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | Oct-Dec | Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | | Applications received| | | | | | | Total | 814 | 998 | 987 | 724 | 624 | | of which | | | | | | | evidence related to child abuse | 0 | 0 | -3 | -3 | -3 | | evidence related to domestic violence | -1 | -8 | -9 | -19 | -16 | | categories of evidence unknown | 815 | 1,006 | 999 | 746 | 643 | | Applications granted | | | | | | | Total | 668 | 761 | 669 | 511 | 341 | | of which | | | | | | | evidence related to child abuse | 24 | 17 | 15 | 3 | -20 | | evidence related to domestic violence | 89 | 50 | -59 | -1 | -52 | | categories of evidence unknown | 555 | 694 | 713 | 509 | 413 |

1. Changes to the figures for applications where the evidence category is known are due to routine updates to data systems.

2. Figures produced on this corrected basis will also be included in the next edition of Legal Aid Statistics Quarterly, due to be published at 9.30am on Thursday 18th December 2014. Contact details and further information

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Tel: 020 3334 3536 Email: newsdesk@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Other queries or comments on the issues set out in this note should be directed to the Legal Aid Agency’s statistics team:

Richard Field Head of Statistics Legal Aid Agency 7th floor 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ Tel: 020 3334 3453 Email: statistics@legalaid.gsi.gov.uk